Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Thomas Wilk, chief editor of Plant Services, is joined by Brian Hronchek, principal trainer and consultant with Eruditio, to discuss a topic in the air these days: PM optimization. These efforts start with the question, “What is the outcome that you want?” And that outcome is for the seasoned technician and the new technician to be able to return exactly the same results when they do the same inspection on a mechanical asset.
Key takeaways
PM optimization starts with clear goals: inspections should yield identical results from both seasoned and new technicians.
Many PMs lack value—use metrics like PM/PdM yield to identify and improve or eliminate ineffective tasks.
Aligning maintenance with planning and scheduling reduces downtime and prevents reactive repair chaos.
Trimming bloated PMs and focusing on useful inspections can boost uptime, cut stress, and streamline production.

John Dony, CEO and co-founder of What Works Institute, explains why policies, procedures and other accommodations for neurodivergent workers can make work safer for everyone. 

Large language model (LLM) AIs have captured the world's attention with their ability to interpret plain-language and convert simple queries into machine language. But, the big advances in manufacturing design and execution are going to rely on updated hardware, says Deb Golden, chief innovation officer at Deloitte. 
At Siemens recent Realize Live event in Detroit, Golden sat down with IndustryWeek Editor-in-Chief Robert Schoenberger to talk about where companies can leverage manufacturing technologies to gain an edge. And at just about every turn, the conversation returned to hardware. 
AI is giving companies a better view of their operations?
“We’re in such a rush to make humans think better, faster, quicker. The only way we could do that is with compute time and space,” Golden said. “We have to know the health of the actual hardware that [manufacturing processes are] operating on. I don’t care where that [compute] hardware is, if it’s sitting on prem, if it’s sitting in the cloud, if it’s sitting literally in outer space on the satellite.”

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on starting your reliability journey and achieving financial independence. In our monthly podcast miniseries, Ask a Plant Manager, Joe considers a commonplace scenario facing the industry and offers his advice, as well as actions that you can take to get on track tomorrow. This episode explains why running time-based and condition-based maintenance in parallel is a costly mistake.
Key takeaways
Condition monitoring won't be perfect at first—expect a learning curve and commit for long-term gains.
Avoid running time-based and condition-based maintenance systems together—it wastes resources.
Pair condition monitoring with root cause analysis to drive real business impact.
Protect condition monitoring resources from daily disruptions—require plant manager approval to reassign.

In this episode, listeners will gain insights into how air seal technology is revolutionizing the plastics film industry to reduce waste, save money, and promote more sustainable manufacturing processes. Addressing things like: Environmental and sustainability concerns, waste and housekeeping improvements and enhanced plant safety initiatives.

Electricity demand is soaring around the world, and in the U.S. electric supply is dwindling. Manufacturers may not have realized this – but they will, and very soon, as electric utilities begin to apply capacity charges to their supply costs. In this installment of the Great Question podcast, energy consultant Brian Reinke – author of a new article – diagnoses the problem and suggests how manufacturers might prepare themselves to address the surging electricity costs. 

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) at Work for Manufacturing, launched by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, is a series of four courses designed to improve mental health literacy among employees and leaders in the manufacturing industry. Lynn Burke Hennighausen and Rob Vallentine, national trainers for the program, joined IndustryWeek during Mental Health Awareness Month to discuss mental health challenges in manufacturing and how the MHFA training program can lead to a safer and more productive work environment.

For this episode, Tobii’s director of products and solutions, Keith Bartels joins Smart Industry’s Scott Achelpohl for a conversation about how visual data is helping teams streamline onboarding of employees, reduce errors, and strengthen standard operating procedures—all without adding complexity to day-to-day work.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Thomas Wilk, chief editor of Plant Services, is joined by Christine Nishimoto, director of asset management software at IBM, for an insightful discussion on how AI agents are reshaping data-driven asset management. Together, they explore the evolving role of artificial intelligence in improving productivity, sustainability, and safety across manufacturing sectors. From tackling long-standing data challenges to envisioning multi-agent systems that can automate complex workflows, the conversation highlights the transformative potential of AI tools in industrial environments. Christine also emphasizes the importance of transparency, data integrity, and regulatory compliance as organizations adopt these technologies.
Key takeaways
Clean, accessible, and accurate data is critical for effective AI-driven asset management.
AI agents can automate multistep tasks like work order creation, boosting efficiency.
Tailored AI tools must respect industry-specific privacy and compliance standards.
Adoption of AI across sectors is accelerating, revealing untapped optimization potential.

Suketu Gandhi, partner and chair of strategic operations with Kearney, offers advice on how to deal with supply chain disruptions in this new era of tariffs.